Hey Robeye - thoroughly enjoyed your posts this morning. So refreshing after the "he shouldn't have won/he should have won" stuff that's been going on here for awhile now. I agree about Tiger and how he changed the world of golf. It also makes me smile that he's still playing, still winning tournaments and still a threat out there. The comparison with Yu Na was a good one.

I, too, believe Gracie is the future of American ladies. She may or may not win Nationals next year but I'll go down as saying she'll beat Ashley at Worlds if they both go. And then after that? Sky's the limit.

The fact that Yu Na Kim took 19 months off from competition and came back and blew away the ladies field to win Worlds is pretty amazing. And she is a good role model, skate-wise, for girls coming up in the sport. She knows how to do it right!

Thanks, noskates, glad to oblige.

The thing about Gracie is that, not only does she have the raw physical talents, but she seems to have (IMHO) the temperament to improve. This includes knowing herself (where she is in comparison to the field), knowing others (who is currently better, and why), and manages to retain a sense of balance, perspective, humor and humility. All of the early stories I read about Gracie being arrogant...I don't see that when reading these more in-depth stories about her and the lengthier remarks she's made. All of this implies that she's not afraid to look reality in the face with a very clear and steady eye, and that she is not fooling herself about the price that needs to be paid to get where she wants to be.

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There is, I think, a good analogy to be made with Yuna's ongoing impact on the overall approach to skating at the highest levels. The combination of jump difficulty (eg hard 3-3s), athleticism (eg blazing SS and GOEs) and consistency (success ratio on said jumps) that is now routinely viewed as a requirement for reaching podiums is, I argue, directly attributable to Yuna's success. And my hunch is that her recent win will only reinforce this trend. The Yuna effect is pretty obvious when one looks at layouts being done last year vs. this year.

Even further, Yuna's ability to combine technical brilliance, athleticism, enormously compelling presentation (pace a certain vocal minority on figure skating forums ), and competitive toughness/consistency had a bit more meaning because she came in the COP era. While I believe all of these characteristics would have served her well in 6.0, and she would have risen to the top in any case, she was the first COP skater that essentially had it all, and therefore became the blueprint and benchmark thereafter. We are seeing the results of that in the up and coming skaters now.
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I think her influence is most evident in the junior and novice ranks, where you can see most girls doing some variation of her layout in the SP and LP (even Sotnikova and Tuktamysheva). It's astonishing how many girls are now doing 3Lz+3T, though none of them I think does it better than Yuna (maybe Gracie, but Yuna's is more fluid).

In the senior ladies field, many are now doing 3/3's, at least in the short program. This, too, is largely Yuna's influence, whose team realized early on the advantages of having a huge technical lead in the short. In the days of 6.0 the short program was no place to be too daring because there was no significant advantage and way too much downside risk.

It's quite possible that once we see a saturation of 3/3's among the top ladies after Sochi, we will then see more 3Axels to enable the top contenders to differentiate themselves. Tuktamysheva seems the most likely candidate. She'll be up against Gold, Osmond, Sotnikova and Murakami in the next quad, and they all do 3/3's.

Of course, it remains to be seen how many of these promising juniors will keep their jumps as they go through puberty.

I wish ATS gets braver and invite some of the Japanese skaters too. I understand the PR risk, but at least, when Ito Midori medaled at the Adult competition, I was so disappointed that they didn't invite her. It was coincidentally right after "Kim Yuna's Kiss & Cry" show, where one of the goals was to invite adults into the world of figure skating. I think it's about time, when the rivalry tension is ceasing. Who knows there are secret Yuna-admirers between young Japanese skaters? Same goes for how Yuna doesn't get invited to Japanese shows. (This I think is because Yuna has her own show, perhaps.)

CAVEAT: This is completely a gut reaction, unsupported by evidence or analysis.

I agree that Gracie seems to be maturing before our eyes. I would even go so far as to say that, in the next cycle, she may be not just a star, but the next American breakout superstar, and a future champion.

(I don't believe in verbal jinxes )

Well, Gold better learn some choreography to reach such heights. She skates right through the music. Could be skating to anything.

Now THAT would be a pic! I hope they come to SkateAmerica...I want a pic with both of them! (But I bet I only get one with Gracie at the FOFS breakfast....)
Carolina was very nice to fans at Worlds by the way....I have pics of her I will post soon...

Originally Posted by vera01

Well, if both Yuna and Gracie are assigned to same GP event and if both skaters skate well at that GP event, Gracie will be able to take photos with Yuna on the podium. That would be nice

Of course, Boitano! I was limiting myself by trying to think of ladies. You thought outside the box. Brian even attended Michelle's wedding.

In another way, through, Michelle's tradition goes back through her coach, Frank Carroll. Carroll was the student and protege of Maribel Vinson Owen, who was (maybe not coincidentally, the last lady before Michelle to win 9 U.S. national titles.